NCSF Media Updates are a sampling of recent stories printed in US newspapers, magazines, and selected websites containing significant mention of BDSM-leather-fetish, polyamory, or swing issues and topics. These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate or anywhere in between.

Media coverage plays a large part in defining public perceptions toward alternative sexual expression. You and your organization can help shape media attitudes by speaking to the press about sexual issues that concern consenting adults.

For additional information, contact Susan Wright at
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This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 917-848-6544

As Director of one of the largest BDSM/Fetish educational events in the country - The Floating World, I have had numerous occasions to work with people from NCSF in assuring the event goes off with minimal friction. They have offered invaluable advice on dealing with municipal authorities and have been very helpful in dealing with an always-prying media. Susan Wright of NCSF has been our media relations expert from the beginning, and has done wonders in keeping us out of the media circus spotlight.

One particular case was when a reporter from The Star Ledger newspaper decided our event was excellent human interest material, even though we explained clearly that we wanted no press. Susan spent much time on the phone and in person with this very determined reporter and managed to expertly turn the focus away from us. She did her best to get the story canceled, but when the Editor wouldn't have it she did excellent damage control, injecting positive elements into the story and delaying the release of the article until AFTER our event, avoiding a flood of curiosity seekers and other media looking for their own stories.

What could have easily been a media disaster became a manageable issue, and her help meant I could focus on keeping the event on track and protecting the privacy of our attendees.

Planning a larger kink event like Winter Wickedness is stressful enough, without adding in efforts to shut it down by the Radical Right. Although we recognized an effort such as this is largely based on misinformation and people’s fear of the unknown, we had invested significant amounts of time, effort and capitol, and were unwilling to be swayed by biased attempts to cancel the event.

With two weeks left before opening day, we heard that a local Christian radio station had done an inflammatory story on our event. Subsequently, the host hotel began receiving a smattering of calls from the listeners demanding the event’s cancellation. We initially contacted the NCSF to consult with their specialists as a preparatory step, in case this was picked up by the mainstream media.

A week later, the Radical Right had discovered their efforts were not producing the desired effect. They stepped it up and began contacting the mainstream media, the local authorities, including the health dept, the fire marshal, the local police dept, etc – in an effort to bring more pressure. We again reached out to the NCSF, which had Susan on the case, and Robin coming in for the event. Between the coordination of the Action Alert e-mails, Robin on the ground as the local media spokesperson, Susan keeping the heat on, and calling in to offer the media another voice – we had the NCSF as an invaluable ally in maintaining our sexual freedoms.

Although what it is that we do (WIITWD) is legal, safe, sane and consensual and had been given the go ahead by the local and state authorities; the radical right’s sensationalism, grassroots efforts and pointed innuendos implying inappropriate behavior, can create enough fear to jeopardize a venue. The NCSF has proven to us, beyond any doubt, that they are willing and able to fight back the bias and discriminatory efforts against us. The NCSF is a valuable asset to the Kink, Leather, GLBT and Alt Sex lifestyles. Adventures In Sexuality (AIS) is proud to be an NCSF Coalition Partner and will continue to bring the NCSF to all our events.

Every year, Leather SINS produces two national BDSM events in Chicago: Kinky Kollege and SINSations in Leather. Ever since the Concerned Women for America attacked five Midwest BDSM conferences in 2002, Leather SINS has consulted with the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom to ensure that our events would not face the same problems if we were attacked by religious political extremists.

Leather SINS has consulted with NCSF about a variety of issues while producing our events. We asked Susan Wright to accept the position as our media spokesperson, posting her phone number on our website so she can respond instantly to any media inquiries. Susan checks every page of our website for each event, looking for statements and phrases that may need clarification or may possibly cause problems if taken out of context by the media.

Leather SINS has gratefully named NCSF as one of our "WE CARE!" charities (along with LA&M). We're proud to be a Coalition Partner of NCSF, and would urge any group to take advantage of NCSF's knowledgeable Incident Response program consultants when producing an event.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate b or anywhere in between. NCSF publishes
the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what media outlets are writing about these
topics. NCSF permits and encourages readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.

Community Standard or Double Standard?
New York Times

Mr. Lambert's context was different, mostly because he is gay and his song "For Your Entertainment" is
graphically sexual, with intimations of sadomasochism ...

The section on deviant desires, to take one example, is denounced by advocates for alternative sexuality
as stigmatizing those whose lusts, no matter how unusual, are harmless, or those whose erotic play, no
matter how unsettling, is consensual. Should a man with a foot fetish be branded as mentally ill? Should
a woman who finds ecstasy in being elaborately bound and enduring denigration or pain? Should such
people be labeled with psychiatric diseases, though the rest of their lives have no serious dysfunction?
Until 1973, homosexuality was among the D.S.M.'s disorders, and critics of the present chapter point to
the condemnation the volume once inflicted on gay men and lesbians' condemnation that both reflected
and bolstered the prevailing cultural perspective by way of arguing that the current manual, the
D.S.M.-IV, is full of unfounded and damaging sexual judgments. Many on the panel, which probably won't,
in the end, do much in the way of deleting conditions, maintain that the chapter on sexuality and gender
identity doesn't brand people too readily with disease. They note that, aside from exceptions like
patients with pedophilia, only those who are distressed meet the threshold for diagnosis. In turn, the
critics respond that such distress stems not from within the individual but from the infliction of
societal standards, from the culture's disapproval and aversion and therefore, in part, from the D.S.M.
itself. This, they emphasize, was why the A.P.A. finally removed a last remnant of the homosexuality
diagnosis what was known as "ego-dystonic" homosexuality in 1987.

National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF)

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is committed to creating a political, legal, and social
environment in the United States that advances the equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms
of alternative sexual and relationship expression. NCSF advances the rights and advocates for consenting
adults in the BDSM-Leather-Fetish, swing, and polyamory communities. We pursue our vision through direct
services, education, advocacy, and outreach in conjunction with our partner organizations to directly
benefit these communities.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate b or anywhere in between. NCSF publishes
the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what media outlets are writing about these
topics. NCSF permits and encourages readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.

Why enable pornographers?
Washington Times
Washington, DC

At the time, as deputy attorney general, Mr. Holder boldly called for stronger enforcement of
pornography and obscenity laws, saying: "Priority should be ...

The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom is committed to creating a political, legal, and social
environment in the United States that advances the equal rights of consenting adults who practice forms
of alternative sexual and relationship expression. NCSF advances the rights and advocates for consenting
adults in the BDSM-Leather-Fetish, swing, and polyamory communities. We pursue our vision through direct
services, education, advocacy, and outreach in conjunction with our partner organizations to directly
benefit these communities.

These stories may be positive, negative, accurate, inaccurate b or anywhere in between. NCSF publishes the Updates to provide readers a comprehensive look at what media outlets are writing about these topics. NCSF permits and encourages readers to forward these Updates where appropriate.

"In Defense of Extreme Pornography" Reason Online Los Angeles, CA

Had Zicari and Romano stuck to just rape and murder, with some R-rated nudity to complement artful scenes of mutilation and dismemberment, as Hollywood does in movies like Hostel and House of 1000 Corpses, they couldbve avoided a lot of trouble. Likewise, had they focused on hardcore sex and kept the violence and puke out of it.

Unfortunately, Romano and Zicari had the audacity to mix genres of entertainment that, while permissible on their own, are apparently not allowed to be combined. And thus they managed to achieve what not even John Waters ever accomplished: They were sent to prison for having bad taste. ...

Read anything in your local (or national) paper that reported on sex in a surprisingly informed, non-hysterical way? The Sex-Positive Journalism Awards want to know about it.

Last's year's winners were selected from over 100 entries submitted by both writers and readers, and they covered subjects from sex in nursing homes, prostitution, and sex in Iran to Kink.com and panics over Internet sex. The winning articles were published in a dozen states in all corners of the United States (and one Canadian province), and represent a range of genres, from news to advice columns.

What they all have in common, however, is that they succeed in embodying the Sex-Positive Journalism Award's criteria (www.sexies.org/criteria.html) for responsible sex journalism far better than the vast majority of their counterparts, helping to improve the quality of dialogue around sex and create a more well-informed reading public.

But there's a long way to go. "Mainstream journalists are generally hopeless at covering sexuality. It's not entirely their fault, but it would be great if this award managed to offer both support to
journalists who'd like to do a better job, as well as some needed legitimacy for the subject matter,"
wrote About.com's Sexuality Guide Cory Silverberg when the awards were first announced.

The winners of the 2009 Sexies will be chosen by an outstanding panel of judges, who have expertise in both journalism and sex-positive advocacy: Dan Savage, author of the popular sex-advice column "Savage Love"; Carol Queen, PhD, writer, speaker, educator, and activist with a doctorate in sexology; Debby Herbenick, PhD, MPH a research scientist and associate director for the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University and sex columnist; and award-winning journalists Doug Henwood, Liza Featherstone, Amanda Robb, and Kai Wright. (See full bios at www.sexies.org/judges.html).

The Sexies will be given for articles in four categories: news, feature, opinion, and regular column,
plus "unsexy" (the most egregious violation of the Sexies' criteria). Articles must have been published in 2008 (2009 articles can be submitted now for next year though) in an edited print or online publication in the U.S or Canada (personal blogs do not quality). Submissions are due by March 31, 2009.

The Sexies' board is composed of journalists Miriam Axel-Lute and Doug Henwood, The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, The Center for Sex and Culture, and the Coalition for Positive Sexuality. We are sponsored by Babeland, UltraVirgo Creative and the David Weinbaum Memorial Foundation. We are seeking additional corporate sponsors and individual donations to support our mission. Donations can be made at www.sexies.org/support.html

###

The Sex-Positive Journalism Awards Criteria

We are seeking pieces of journalism that:
* touch on sexbsexual practice, health, or behavior--in some manner (stories just about sexual
orientation do not qualify)
* are intended for a general audience
* meet high overall standards of reporting, fact-checking, and writing

and do at least one of the following:
* show evidence of fairness in seeking sex-positive sources to respond to sex-negative ones
* ask hard questions about the motivation and background of sources who rely on sex-negative soundbites
* avoid biased or sensationalistic language
* cover newsworthy topics, events, or issues that might tend to be swept under the rug because of
controversial sexual content
* report accurately, respectfully and with nuance on sex research results
* contain fair, accurate, and non-sensational portrayals of sexual subcultures
* keep a clear separation between sex crimes, such as sexual assault or pedophilia, and things that
merely make people uncomfortable, such as consensual kink, teen sexuality or gay priests; and help
readers who may not be familiar with the issues make the distinction
* specifically challenge sex-negative assumptions or practices in society at large or in a specific
community
* educate the public as to the diversity of sexual behavior without sensationalizing
* celebrate sexuality as a positive force in human lives

We are not looking for racy or sensationalistic stories. The awards will be something any traditional
journalist should be proud to hang on his or her wallba testament to journalistic standards of fairness
and accuracy about a charged and controversial subject.

In the News

NCSF’s Coalition Partners Join Together for Consent Summit The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom held its annual Coalition Partner meeting in Phoenix, Arizona from February 8-10, 2013. The Consent Summit took place Friday evening, and Coalition Partners were able to participate via streaming video to give their input on the new Consent Statement. Go to www.ncsfreedom.org to see the Consent Statement and comment on it. “The Consent Statement…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE National Coalition for Sexual Freedom NCSF Survey on Consent The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) wants to hear from you! Please take our Consent Counts survey and tell us what you think about consent: www.ncsfreedom.org/survey.html As part of decriminalizing BDSM in the legal codes, we need to be able to articulate a clear definition of consent that the BDSM communities believe in. The results of this…

NCSF Launches the Next Chapter for Consent Counts February 27, 2012 The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) announces two new publications as part of its nationwide campaign, Consent Counts. The Consent Counts Project was launched by the BDSM-leather-fetish communities in 2006 to decriminalize consensual BDSM in U.S. law by ensuring that consent will be recognized as a defense to criminal charges brought under assault laws and other statutes. "For…

Our BDSM communities could be adversely impacted by a well-intentioned, but overly broad, piece of proposed criminal legislation that has been introduced by Senator Christine Kehoe in the California Senate. NCSF is asking all of you to sign and send to NCSF letters (a draft is attached below) that we can introduce if necessary at a hearing likely to be held in April, 2011. The purpose of the bill, SB…

In an indictment rendered by a Grand Jury in the Western District of Missouri on September 9, 2010, five Missouri men allegedly participated in torturing a mentally disabled woman online or in person over a multi-year period when the victim was between the ages of 16 and 24. Among the charges are: Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud or Coercion, Forced Labor Trafficking, Transportation for Sexual Activity, and Conspiracy. The allegations…

Consent Counts: We're Making a Difference

Completed Federal and State Legal Research

Developed Educational Programs and Outreach Materials

Built Alliances With Sexual Freedom Advocacy Groups

About Consent Counts

NCSF is leading a major national campaign—Consent Counts—to change the laws and police practices that our communities now endure, and to establish that consent is available as a defense in criminal BDSM prosecutions.

BDSM is prosecuted as assault in the U.S., even when it is consensual.

No state or appellate court has allowed consent as a defense to assault in BDSM cases.

Consent Counts is a nationwide project to decriminalize consensual BDSM.

Program Goals:Consent Counts is a nationwide project to decriminalize consensual BDSM through education, advocacy, legal actions and lobbying.